INQUIRIES SENT TO PEOPLE’S COMMISSARIATS OVER THE PREPARATION OF A REPORT BY THE ALL-RUSSIA C.E.C. AND THE C.P.C. AT THE NINTH ALL-RUSSIA CONGRESS OF SOVIETS[3]

Written:Written on December 17, 1921Published:First published in 1933 inLenin Miscellany XXIII.

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1976,

      Moscow,Volume 45,

      pages409b-412a.Translated:Yuri SdobnikovTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet ArchiveYou may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

Themost concise information possible
(2-3 figures) and so precise (or with a
reservation of how close it is to the real
thing) as to make itworth whilefor me
to insert it in my speech at the Congress
of Soviets?

1.ToComrade Chicherin(or, if he is unable to reply, to
Litvinov) andto Comrade Radek

Willit be enough to say, in characterising the
international position of the R.S.F.S.R., that from the side of
Poland and Rumania, it is only their war party that
threatens and not all their ruling classes?

—thatthe alliance of the four Powers (Britain, the
United States, France and Japan) concluded at theWashington Conference is, first, highly unstable, like all
imperialist alliances; and, second, hostile to all the other
peoples?

Shouldanything be added to this?

Isit all right to tell about the plan to invite Russia
and Germany to the second conference in April
1922?[4]What source should I quote? How authentic or probable
is this to be considered?

2.ToComrade Chicherin(Litvinov)

Isit all right to characterise our progress for 1921 by
the increase in the number of trade treaties with European
powers? If it is, list them (in 1920 only with Britain,
and in 1921 with such-and-such countries).

Ifnot, is it ail right to characterise progress in this
respect by means of data other than the volume of trade
exchange (about which I shall inquire from the People’s
Commissariat for Foreign Trade)?

3.ToComrade Lezhava

Isit possible to characterise our progress for 1921 in
terms of developing trade with other countries by means
of two or three figures, however general and approximate?
For instance, purchases and orders in 1920—aboutso much;
for so many months of 1921, to anapproximatefigure,
giving aprobabletotal ofup toso much?

Isit possible to bring out Germany in this respect?

Isit possible to give two or three final figures on the
volume of our exports in 1921 as compared with that in 1920?

4.ToComrade Fomin

Couldyou let me have the exact or rough figures about
the number of new locomotives (and cars? and tank cars?)
brought in from abroad in 1921? compared with 1920? and
other products for transport?

ditto:ordered in 1921 for the amount of?

Isit possible for me to give in my report at the Congress
of Soviets facts about the state of transport in 1921
compared with 1920, in the briefest form, stating the essential
(one page)?

5.ToComrade Trotsky

Isit possible to add to your theses and your report
something about the army’s economic work? about the
uninterruption of continuous ties with the labour army
councils?[5]and in general according to the assignment formulated
in a decision either by one of the C.C. plenums in 1921,
or one of the Politbureau sittings in the autumn of
1921?[6]

6.ToComrade Khinchuk

Couldyou supplement the figures for the development
of Centrosoyuz turnover which you have given me (1 
million; 3 and 6 million in gold for August, September and
October
1921),[1]first, with approximate figures for
November? second, the figure for grain purchases? third, the figure
for the number of gubernia societies which have submitted
their reports out of the total? fourth, any other very brief
results which I could cite in my report at the Congress of
Soviets?

7.ToComrade Osinsky

Couldyou give me for my report at the Congress of
Soviets 2–3 summary figures, first, on our fulfilment of the
task of supplying peasants with seed for the autumn of
1921; second, on other tangible results or successes already
in evidence in 1921?

8.ToComrade Smilga(or Trifonov)

Couldyou let me have, for insertion in my report at
the Congress of Soviets, the most concise figures on fuel:

Ihave Pyatakov’s report on Donbas. Could I have the
results for 1920 and 1921?

dittoon oil?

dittoon peat?

dittoon firewood for 1920 and 1921?

9.ToComrade Bogdanov

Pleaselet me have for my report at the Congress of
Soviets the briefest information (not more than 1/2–1 page
on each point)

onmetallurgy for 1921 in comparison with 1920?

onYugostal?[2]

onthe importance and prospect of the enterprise of   Rutgers and his group?

onassistance to the Urals (Hammer’s concessions)

onthe textile industry?

onsome results of the work of the Central
Administration for the Farms of Industrial Enterprises
(task: the shortest, most indicative figures which could
be cited in the report to show both the great difficulty
of the situation and any small signs of improvement).

10.ToComrade Gorbunov

Onelectrification

theend of Levi’s
article[7]

increasein the number and capacity of electric-power   stations

for1918, 1919, 1920 and 1921.

Theimportance of Kashira and Utkina Zavod, and their
forthcoming start in the spring of 1922.

dittoabout
Volkhovsite.[8]

11.ToComrades Lunacharsky, Pokrovsky and Litkens

Pleaselet me have for my report at the Congress of
Soviets the briefest data for a graphic picture of the growing
thirst for knowledge, for learning, and progress in this
sphere (not more than 2 or 3 figures on the number of
students, number of libraries, etc.; the most salient points).

12.ToRadchenko: about the hydraulic extraction of peat:
what has been ordered in Germany? prospects for 1922?

[1]Seealso Document 530 of this volume.—Ed.

[2]Amining and steel trust with mills in the Ukraine, the
Northern Caucasus and the Crimea.—Ed.

[3]Thematerials received to the inquiries sent to the People’s
Commissariats and other central establishments were used by Leninin his All-Russia C.E.C. and C.P.C. report at the Ninth
All-Russia Congress of Soviets (see present edition, Vol. 33, pp. 143–77).
The text scored off with double lines was included, in a
somewhat modified wording, into each inquiry when they were
retyped for dispatch. SeeCollected Works, Fifth (Russian)
Edition, Vol. 54, Supplements, Documents 6–9.

[4]Areference to the proposed International Economic and
Financial Conference at Genoa (Italy).

[5]LabourArmy Councilswere set up on the basis of the Military
Army Councils in view of the transfer of some of the Red Army
combat units to the status of labour armies during the
breathingspace in 1920. On the Labour Army Councils were
representatives of the People’s Commissariats for Food, Railways,
Agriculture, and Labour, and the Supreme Economic Council.

[6]Areference to the decision of the R.C.P.(B.) Central Committee
Plenum of August 9, 1921, adopted on Lenin’s proposal, which
“recognises the need to raise the question of more intensified
transfer of the Army to economic work, and authorises the
Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic to hold several
sittings specially to discuss and prepare this” (Central Party
Archives of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the C.P.S.U.
Central Committee).

Onthe plenum’s instructions the question of the Army’s
labour tasks was considered by the C.L.D. on August 12, 1921.
Under its decision these matters were referred to the C.P.C.
Having heard on August 16, 1921, the reports of the commissions
set up by the C.L.D., the C.P.C. approved the draft decisions
with some amendments.

[7]Areference to the article by engineer V. L. Levi, “Russia’s
Electric-Power Supply (General Review)”, which appeared inEkonomicheskaya Zhiznon December 8, 1921, and described
Russia’s electric-power supply from 1917 to mid–1921.

OnDecember 20, 1921, there was published a table entitled
“The Growth in the Number of Stations in the Period from 1917
to July 1, 1921” under the caption “Russia’s Electric-Power
Supply” with the following introductory sentence: “In addition
to the general review of Russia’s electric-power supply (seeEkonomicheskaya ZhiznNo. 276 of Decembers, 1921), the editorial
board publishes the following table which characterises the
growth in the number of electric-power stations from 1917 to
July 1, 1921.”

[8]Areference to the electric-power stations then under
construction.

Kashira, the Stale Kashira District Electric-Power Station.

UtkinaZavod, the Krasny Oktyabr Electric-Power Station
near Petrograd, whose first 10,000 kw section was started on
October 8, 1922.

TheVolkhov site, the Volkhov Hydro-Electric Power Station.
The decision to build it was taken by the C.P.C. in July 1918,
and the work was started after the Civil War, in 1921. It was
run in at the end of 1926.